This factsheet describes in greater detail the methodology used to estimate the economic contributions of North Carolina’s forest products industry. It is a companion piece to the bulletin North Carolina’s Forests and Forest Products Industry By the Numbers, where a variety of figures and statistics are provided on the management and conversion of standing timber into primary and secondary wood and fiber products.

This publication is a guide for states where military installations, agriculture, other compatible economic development, and natural resources drive the economy. This guide introduces the NCSLP and offers recommendations for developing and establishing such a partnership based on the lessons learned in North Carolina.

The North Carolina General Assembly adopted a Renewable (energy) Portfolio Standard through passage of Senate Bill 3-2007. Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) require that a certain percentage of a utility's overall energy sales must be derived from renewable resources. This publication explains RPS and the benefits to the forestry industry in North Carolina.

Forest harvest residue (FHR) is an important environmental component, but how do you measure it? The recent surge and interest in renewable energy in the U.S., including wood energy, has brought growing concern about the impact of biomass removal and its impact on biodiversity, water quality and long-term site productivity. This document will describe how to rapidly inventory scattered and piled FHR.

This publication defines many of the questions often asked about biomass-based energy, the associated technologies and producing woody biomass. These questions and their answers will help you understand terms and concepts commonly associated with biomass energy.

Biomass has an advantage over renewable energies (such as solar, wind and hydro) in that it can produce both electrical power and liquid transportation fuels. Biomass is also carbon-neutral because in a broad sense, the CO2 released in combustion of current vegetation is captured by the next generation of vegetation through photosynthesis. However, biomass feedstocks (both forestry and agricultural) have low energy density and they are bulky, moist and perishable so that they are relatively expensive to transport and store. Torrefaction solves these problems by making a feedstock that is dry, does not rot and holds much more energy per unit of volume and mass.

Prism sweep and line intercept methods were compared for accuracy and efficiency to measure woody biomass residues on a recently harvested site in Eastern North Carolina. A 100% tally control on 0.1 acre plots was used to compare volume estimates of tested methods. Estimates of residual volume were accurate and not significantly different. Prism sweeps required an average of three minutes per plot, whereas line intersect samples averaged seventeen minutes per plot. Prism sweeps were accurate and five times more efficient than line intersect samples.